The ‘Confectionery Cannon’ Finds Your Face And Shoots Marshmallows At It

It was developed by a team of engineers at Olin College.

The days of throwing marshmallows into your friendâ€™s mouth to see if they can catch them are no match for the face-detecting cannon that launches the soft, white food across the room.

Developed by mechanical engineering students at Olin College in Needham as part of their fall semester final project, the â€śConfectionery Cannonâ€ť can seek out targets before blasting them with a marshmallow at a reasonable speed. It even reloads on its own.

Why create something that shoots marshmallows at peoplesâ€™ noggins? It was an assignment, of course.Â But itâ€™s also extremely entertaining to use.

All it took to put together the device was some coding, tinkering with electronics, a PCV pipe, and a $250 budget.

â€śTo control our mechanical and pneumatic system we developed a robust electrical system. We use a custom protoshield on our Arduino to connect and control our four servos, and we trigger our pnematic launcher by controlling a solenoid on a sprinkler valve,â€ť the inventors wrote on their website.

They then used an OpenCV program, along with a webcam, to create the face-tracking technology that allows the cannon to seek out its intended target.

Part of their â€śPrinciples of Engineeringâ€ť class, the four students behind the Confectionery Cannon designed the entire system using tools offered at the school, including laser-cutting technology to construct certain pieces of the gun.